Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on reaction to President Trump’s “Born Alive” executive order:
President Trump announced this week that he will sign an executive order mandating that doctors attend to babies born alive, “no matter what the circumstances.” The proximate cause of his order is the practice of denying medical care to babies born alive as a result of a botched abortion.
The American people are overwhelmingly opposed to late-term abortions. What Trump plans to do goes beyond partial-birth abortion: His executive order is targeted at prohibiting infanticide. Astonishingly, he is being criticized in some quarters for doing so. Some maintain that infanticide is not a problem.
Dr. Kristyn Brandi is a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health. She opposed a legislative effort earlier this year that would provide sanctions for doctors who refused to provide medical care for babies born alive following a botched abortion. “The bill maligns and vilifies providers and patients to push a false narrative about abortion later in pregnancy.”
“States can and do punish people for killing children who are born alive,” opines Florida State University law professor Mary Ziegler. Journalist Danielle Campoamor says it is a “lie” to say babies born alive after a failed abortion need protection, saying such a scenario is “incredibly unlikely.” Yet the Associated Press, which quotes critics of Trump’s proposed order, says there were “143 deaths between 2003 and 2014 involving infants born alive during attempted abortions.”
NARAL, the pro-abortion giant, even says, “The term ‘born alive’ is not a term rooted in science or reality (my italic).” Jacqueline Ayers, a vice president at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, says Trump’s order is a “solution to a nonexistent problem,” yet he undercuts his own position by offering a quote from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Northam has said that it is up to the mother to decide whether a baby born alive after a trimester abortion should receive medical care. He added that in the meantime, while she is figuring out what to do, “the infant would be kept comfortable.”
It is not just Northam who allows infanticide. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo does as well. In 2019, he removed all criminal penalties for medical personnel who intentionally allow an innocent baby to die.
Lying about infanticide is the natural progression of a mindset that justifies partial-birth abortion. Indeed, the lying became publicly known in 1997 when Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted on national TV that he “lied through [his] teeth” when he “just went out there and spouted the party line” about how rare partial-birth abortion is.
All the health professionals, journalists, activists, and politicians who deny the reality of babies being born alive after a failed abortion need to tell that to Gianna Jessen. She survived an abortion. And so have many others. They should look at her in the face and say she has no business being alive.
In 1994, Mother Teresa said, “The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.” Now her acute observation has to be amended to include infanticide. Kudos to President Trump for opposing these barbaric acts.
